Creation vs Consumption

What is your relationship with Creating vs Consuming when it comes to your business?

When we consume we are taking in information, we are bringing something from the outside in.
When we create, we are putting something from the inside out. 

I like to think of creation and consumption like a little idea factory, we consume information (reading/listening to podcasts/ taking a class) it goes into our brains and we mix this information with our own thoughts and we create something new of our own, we then put that idea out into the world and that is our own creation! 
This is exactly the balance we want, we consume so we learn, then we put what we have consumed into practice and make it our own.  

However problems begin to arise when the balance is off, typically when the balance is off,  most of us (but not all) will over consume. It can feel a lot easier to over consume because creating requires courage. Creation requires us to feel. As we grow and create we will feel all different kinds of emotions such as failure, embarrassment, anticipation, and uncertainty. Where as consuming is passive and requires very little of us.

Overconsumption can at first feel great, it can feel very productive, the reason it can feel good is because consuming settles uncertainty.

For example if you are a designer-maker and you want to get more eyeballs on your work, because you want to start getting more commissions,  you might decide to start sending weekly newsletters, so you can share your amazing work with more people. 
It is likely that you would consume information by doing research, so you can learn how to create and send newsletters, which is sensible, you're figuring out how to do it, you've never done it before.

BUT when you think about creating the newsletter, you suddenly feel self doubt when you go to put it together.  When we feel that self doubt you might tell yourself ‘once we have a bit more info that doubt will disappear’. 

So rather than creating the newsletter, you might go and consume a little bit more information about the best way to build a mailing list, and then read some reviews on newsletter service providers and you may even decide that you should do a short course in copywriting to improve your writing.

So we keep consuming, it keeps us busy and productive and settles our brain temporarily because we are thinking we are making progress and improving but we don't make real progress until we take the action of creating and sending the newsletter.

Overconsumption is a delaying tactic. We are avoiding doing the scary thing, the thing that will move us forward. I often hear people say ‘when I know a bit more I will set that up tomorrow’ but tomorrow never comes. There will always be more information for us to consume unless we decide on purpose how much we are going to consume. 

I'm not saying don't consume  at all. It is good to learn, plan and research but that is only helpful if we are then taking action and using it as fuel for creation. I like thinking about consumption like you would with eating. Eating is great, it sustains us and keeps us alive, but if we keep on eating and not using that food as fuel we end up overweight and unwell, it is all about balance.

By continuing to consume and not create we are just failing ahead of time, and the only thing this creates is unproductive failure. 

Here's how to break the over consuming cycle

1. Ask yourself what the emotion os that is causing you to consume? 

2 . Ask yourself, what emotion would you need to feel to start creating? Creating is a courageous act

3 . Ask yourself,  What do I want to create? Give your brain the assignment

Over - Creating

Over Creation can be problematic -if you are taking action from a place of fear and doubt what your producing will not be effective.

 Do you feel like you are always creating, but not getting the results you want?  This is because you may be producing from a place of fear, and when we do this, we are in a rush and we don't take the time to pause to  look what's going on.

For example, If you are running a business there are lots of moving parts for us to keep track of, so we have our creative work (that is essentially our product), then we have our marketing- how are we sharing our work, the traffic to our website, then we have our clients, all various things that we manage when we run a business. And it really helps if all of these moving parts are working well as this is likely to result in a success business

If you experience fear and doubt because you think your business isn’t working as well as you hoped, and you just keep creating things and keep changing things without planning and intention, this is when we start to miss out on the bigger picture, because you are reacting rather than responding.

Tips to stop over creating

1. Stop, look at the data, at all the different aspects of your business

2.what has been working and what hasn't, this is where you can assess your results and strategies and become really intentional about what you are creating. 

3.Then based on your assessments , decide how you want to move forward and what you need to change and this is where you may need to consume and do some research.this is not the same as chopping and changing keeping on creating without applying any new knowledge or intention this is stopping analysing and making an informed decision. rather than reacting from a place of fear.

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